Coming out in April 2018, David Kertzer's new book, The Pope Who Would be King

The violence that erupted in Rome in 1848, the hasty flight of a frightened pope into exile, and the proclamation of the end of the Papal States were among the most dramatic and consequential events of the nineteenth century. Yet today they are practically unknown outside scholarly circles. The story told in The Pope Who Would Be King is central to understanding Europe’s rocky path to democracy, and the ending of the papacy’s role as a pillar of reaction. It heralded the death knell of rule by divine right in the west and was a crucial step in the struggle to separate church and state. Modern Europe as we know it could finally emerge.

Book trailer for The Pope and Mussolini

Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, the publishing company for the German edition of The Pope and Mussolini, produced a trailer for the book, coinciding with David Kertzer's presentation at the German biennial conference of historians in Hamburg in September. Watch the trailer here (in English with German subtitles).

The Pope and Mussolini wins Pulitzer Prize in biography

April 20th, 2015: The Pope and Mussolini, "an engrossing dual biography that uses recently opened Vatican archives to shed light on two men who exercised nearly absolute power over their realims," wins the Pulitzer Prize in the biography category. To read more about the prize on Publisher's Weekly and Brown.edu, click here and here.

"a fast-paced must-read" —Publishers Weekly

“David Kertzer has an eye for a story, an ear for the right word, and an instinct for human tragedy. They all come together in The Pope and Mussolini to document, with meticulous scholarship and novelistic flair, the complicity between Pius XI and the Fascist leader in creating an unholy alliance between the Vatican and a totalitarian government rooted in corruption and brutality. This is a sophisticated blockbuster.” —Joseph Ellis, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of Revolutionary Summer

Published by Random House in North America, Rizzoli in Italy, and Oxford University Press in the UK. Upcoming publications in 2016 by Les Arènes in France and Individual Editora in Portugal.

Steven Spielberg's upcoming film to be The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara

On April 11th Steven Spielberg announced that his upcoming film will be an adaptation of Kertzer's 1997 book The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara. Mark Rylance will star as Pope Pius IX, and Tony Kushner is writing the screenplay.

The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara tells a story of Bologna in 1858, when papal authorities seized a Jewish boy after it was claimed that he had been secretly baptized. He was then raised as a Christian, and his case, as well as his parents' struggle to get him back, would come to represent larger conflicts between the Catholic Church and the revolutionary forces for democracy gaining traction in Italy.

picture credit: Wikimedia Commons

RAI 2 broadcasts profile of David Kertzer's Italian research and books

RAI 2, one of Italy's major TV networks, broadcast a profile of David Kertzer's Italian research and books on April 3rd, 2016. Watch the segment, part of a program called Sorgente di Vita, here(in Italian).

Profile of David Kertzer in Corriere della Serra

Corriere della Sera, Italy's preeminent daily newspaper, publishes an extended profile of David Kertzer and the origins of his interest in Italian history on February 16th, 2016. Read the article here.

Picture credit: Carlo Lannutti

Interview Bellagio Center

David Kertzer sits down with Robert Garris of the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center to discuss the subject of his new book, the relationship between Benito Mussolini and Pope Pius XI.

The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara

National Book Award finalist for nonfiction, 1997

Bologna, 1858: A police squad, acting on the orders of the Inquisitor, invades the home of a Jewish merchant, Momolo Mortara, wrenches his crying six-year-old son from his arms, and rushes him off in a carriage bound for Rome. His mother is so distraught that she collapses and has to be taken to a neighbor's house, but her weeping can be heard across the city. With this terrifying scene--one that would haunt this family forever--David I. Kertzer begins his fascinating investigation of the dramatic kidnapping, and shows how this now obscure saga would eventually contribute to the collapse of the Church's temporal power in Italy.

Moritz Oppenheim's "The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara"

Moritz Oppenheim's painting, "The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara," has triggered international interest. Its sale for over $400,000. at an auction at Sotheby's in New York on December 17 is discussed in this article in The Tablet Magazine. The article includes a lengthy interview with David Kertzer about the Mortara case, the lost painting, and about his new book, The Pope and Mussolini.

Kertzer on MSNBC's Morning Joe show

On MSNBC's Morning Joe Show, David Kertzer discusses the role of the papacy in politics, both today, as Pope Francis addresses climate change, and, as described in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Pope and Mussolini, in the past, when Pope Pius XI, a religious figure, made a deal with Mussolini, a political one. Watch the video here.

David Kertzer discusses 'The Pope and Mussolini' at the Watson Institute for International Studies

Book panel for The Pope and Mussolini Featuring National Book Award finalist and Watson Faculty Fellow, David Kertzer.

David Kertzer Speaks With Alfred Fox Uhry

Pulitzer and Academy Award-winning playwright and screenwriter Alfred Fox Uhry joins Kertzer in conversation about the overwhelming evidence that suggests Mussolini could not have established his dictatorship without Vatican support.